Toronto Zoo to Force Endangered Gay Penguins to Go Straight

But The Toronto Star is reporting that zoo officials at the Toronto Zoo are putting the kibosh on a relationship between Buddy and Pedro, two endangered African Penguins that have been caught canoodling.

“They do courtship and mating behaviours that females and males would do,’’ one keeper said in an interview.

Those behaviours include making a “braying’’ sound, almost like a donkey, as a mating call. They defend their territory, preen each other, and are constantly standing alone together.

But in Toronto, Buddy and Pedro’s relationship, however you describe it, is destined to come to an end soon because they have a duty. They have top-notch genes, so the zoo intends to separate them from each other and pair them with females for breeding.

Given that African penguins are endangered, the move falls within a species survival plan among zoos.